Bay Area Pinball

PPE 2011 Tournament: When the Bullet Hit the Bone!

September 29, 2011

Another Pacific Pinball Exposition has come and gone. Phew! It kicked my ass! There were 44 competitors in the Open event, 59 in the Classics, 41 in Novice, and 13 in Kids, for a grand total of 157 entrants. That’s more than double anything I’ve ever run before. It hit me like a cannon ball and I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone.

Multi-world champion Keith Elwin also ran a Pin Tac Toe tournament on Friday which had over 30 players. Keith, it should be mentioned, also ran the tournament the last couple years. His skills are legendary.

Here’s a look at the tournament area. Dave Baach, my co-organizer, quickly realized the overhead track lighting could add some awesome to the tournament. The position of the lights didn’t create glare on the games and made for an excellent atmosphere. We ran with it.

Here’s Dave Baach and I, the tournament organizers. Dave is an exceptional tech, cool guy, great organizer and lent me his hotel room to shower when the water was shut off in my neighborhood on Saturday.

Special Guests: The Special Force Girls. Jamie George, Molly Atkinson, and Molly Reismann. Molly Reismann won the masks in Friday’s raffle and was probably the only one to put in tickets!

Nick Fitzpatrick was our first champion of the show, taking 1st in Kids Division! Way to go, Nick! Nick is getting good, folks. Look for him in future tournaments and prepare to get beat by a kid.

Local BAPA league member Walter Hurwitz destroying Centaur. He destroyed it pretty good, too.

This is a face of determination. Nate from Portland stepped up to run most of the novice finals when I had to leave to go run my “How to Play Pinball like the Pros” seminar. He ran it like a CHAMP! When I came back he just said, “No worries, we’ve got it.” And gat dayam he did. Top tier, this man, and I think he might have got bit by the tourney bug and Portlanders may be seeing some more tourney leadership from this guy.

1st in Novice: Per Schwarzenberger

Still looking for the score sheet for the rest! Sorry guys. Send me your names!

Handing out plaques for the Novice Winners.

Julie Gray defends the American Way on Special Force. Josh Lehan informed me the Special Force backglass was so unpopular in Europe that they created an alternate Euro backglass: “Special Force Girls“.

Stephan Colleredo showed solid EM skills and was an unknown. He was 2nd overall qualifier and showed you can show up from out of nowhere and do some damage.

Johnny Modica took 3rd in Classics with solid play, and he’s a fun guy to boot!

Bob Matthews showed great focus and an old school play style using a minimum of fancy flipper moves but magic prediction and reaction skills. Bob is all class. Super respect.

Andrei Massenkoff, the Bay Area phenom who recently won the PAPA World Championship, took first in Classics. Always a good guy, super-competitive, just too cool. Congrats Andrei!

In Open, Karl DeAngelo took 4th, but that was partly because he had to leave after game 1 to catch a flight. Very solid player. You don’t want to be on the opposite end of this guy in a game of pinball.

Cayle George, the IFPA Champion, took 3rd with solid, technical play. Super methodical, technical player that sees all the lights and opportunities. Nothing gets by this guy.

No surprise to see Keith Elwin in the Final Four. Keith took 2nd. Keith also ran Pin Tac Toe. Just a natural at pinball. No nonsense play, clinical, seemingly detached. Yet, an understated guy who often leaves a clutch game with sweat on his brow – you know he’s giving it 100 percent.

The big surprise at this tournament was a man named Kevin Martin. Kevin is the guy who produces the PAPA World Championships, Cupid and Canines, and most recently, the Pinburgh Match Play for All event. As producer, he chooses not to play in his events.

Before I say further, Kevin made a GIANT contribution to the prize pot and also provided the PAPA software for the tournament.

Kevin came into the Finals as the 12th seed (of 16), meaning he had to claw all the way through the ranks. In the Quarter and Semi Finals he was usually in bad position for choice of Game or Order in all his matches. Didn’t matter, he found a place for himself in the Final four by just killing fools left and right!

In the Final at game 3, with Karl out of the mix and fatigue setting in, Kevin found himself a trailing distant third. Only a three-way tie could keep him in the running on the last game. It was starting to look like his skills and karma had worn out their welcome.

But BANG Kevin started Multi and racked a Jackpot on the open to differentiate himself from his assails and the two others could not produce in convincing fashion. A little luck and his competitors finishing one-two to make the whole event tied on points pushed the matter to sudden death.

With scores tied, a coin was flipped. Came up Capcom Airborne. Kevin was the highest scorer in qualifiers on this game and was now, for the first (and only) time in his Finals run, in a dominant position. He didn’t squander it. He stepped up and capitalized, ruled the skies, took home top honors!

Kevin Martin has long been known to have the SHOW. But on Sunday, September 25th, he also proved without question, he also has the GO.

KEVIN MARTIN HAS WON THE OPEN DIVISION OF THE PACIFIC PINBALL OPEN!! GRAND CHAMPION!! HUGE CONGRATS TO KEVIN MARTIN!!

3rd Place was Cayle, Andrei & Tim Hansen (Tim had to leave
so they just plunged his turns).

Andrei, Cayle and Tim were the favored, however, since Tim had to bow out, his teammates had to plunge his balls and pray. Word at the tournament was that Jeannie Rodriguez was the franchise player of the winning team, and the main reason they went on to victory.

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At some point, when I have time (HA!), I’d like to synch up some of the play footage from Keith’s cameras with the stuff I shot. Caveats being that I ran out of space on a card taping Cayle on Dracula, and there wasn’t an overhead camera on the final game (Airborne). That’s assuming I could get a copy of said playfield footage, etc.

(Then again, Dracula was such a train wreck that I’m not sure you’d WANT that footage out there. Well, maybe for shits and giggles.)

Also, I still haven’t figured out where to post that 4 1/2 hours of seminar footage. Because, yeah … 4 1/2 HOURS. And I need to bug Martin for the sound board recordings (though he’s probably got much bigger things to deal with at the moment).